I’m in too remote a part of the world to really jump into this fray, but I don’t think Mr Obama should have any discourse at all, and I think the notion that there is some sort of national discourse which can be changed through some sort of centralized effort is sort of silly and pollyannish.
It seems to me there are obvious average differences among races, both culturally and genetically. So what? What is it about a race classification that has any more meaning for defining a given individual or their potential than, say, gender?
We should stop pretending all groups are the same and stop pretending that grouping people has much value.
It’s unlikely that we will do that, but that is what we should do.
It is a personal observation of mine that the determination to classify citizens along race-based cohorts is at least as much driven by minorities who feel underrepresented in society as it is by middle class whites who feel put upon.
But you can’t have it both ways: if you want to plead that your group is underrepresented because of unfair social policies or racism, you must be willing to show that your group will perform on par if given equal opportunity. To date that has not been the case, particularly along black-white lines, either in the United States or any other country.